Jon Runyan Jr. should help solidify Giants’ offensive line

Entering the 2022 offseason, New York Giants general manager Joe Schoen understood fully that improving a porous offensive line was a priority.

Schoen’s biggest personnel play in trying to do so was to sign former Green Bay Packers guard Jon Runyan Jr. to a three-year, $30 million contract in free agency.

Right move? Let’s discuss Runyan as we continue player-by-player profiles of the Giants’ 90-man roster.

The skinny

Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 307
Opening day age: 27
Position: Guard
Experience: 4
Contract: Three years, $30 million | 2024 cap hit: $6.5 million | Guaranteed at signing: $17 million

Career to date

Runyan was a sixth-round pick by Green Bay in the 2020 NFL Draft and was a full-time starter for the Packers the last three seasons. He began his career as a left guard but transitioned to the right side over the past two seasons.

In his three seasons as a starter, Runyan has surrendered just six sacks. He has allowed 60 pressures, 20.0 per season. His 97.9 pass-blocking efficiency (PBE) score in 2023 was a tick below his 98.1 career average, per Pro Football Focus. That 97.9 PBE was better than any Giants’ offensive lineman last season.

As a run-blocker, Runyan has always been adequate. He has posted career grades from a low of 53.2 (2023) to a high of 57.4 (2021).

2024 outlook

Runyan spent the spring working as the starting right guard. There is no reason to believe that will change going forward.

This was Daboll responding during OTAs to my question about why Runyan was on the right side:

For me, the key part of that answer was this:

“He communicates well. I think that’s important between John (Michael Schmitz) and Evan (Neal).”

Runyan says he is fine on the right side.

“My whole career, it didn’t matter where I played,” he said this spring. “Early on in the career I played mainly the left, and towards the end, second half, moved over to the right. It feels natural for me now. Kind of when I moved over there about two years ago, I kind of felt like a fish out of water, but it’s kind of my home now and I feel comfortable there.”

Runyan said during OTAs that he feels he is benefitting from working with Giants offensive line coach Carmen Bricillo.

“Carm, he’s very detailed, very detail-oriented. He really kind of stresses getting — there is some bad habits I’ve created over my career that through the glass of me back with Green Bay, kind of pushed to the side, and come here and have a new, fresh set of eyes on me,” Runyan said.

“It’s something I’ve been able to reevaluate and take a step back and look how I can fix these things. Since the beginning of this, we’ve been doing drills on the field and just put myself in different positions, making myself feel uncomfortable, and trying to rewire how I used to think, how I used to attack defenders, and stuff like that.

“It’s good because it’s making me think more, it’s making me think more about my hands, my feet, and how everything is correlated to each other. Having those fresh set of eyes has been really beneficial, and I think it’ll help carry me the rest of this and into the training camp and pay dividends for me in the season.”

Runyan was a good, but not great offensive lineman in Green Bay who was statistically better than any guard the Giants put on the field a season ago. The relative consistency of his last three seasons tells us he should be at least that for New York in 2024.